


Into the Hand of a Woman II

by Daegaer



Series: Into the Hand of a Woman [2]
Category: Tanakh
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Gen, Motherhood, women
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-19
Updated: 2013-02-19
Packaged: 2017-11-29 20:42:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/691246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/pseuds/Daegaer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Now Sisera had fled away on foot to the tent of Jael wife of Heber the Kenite . . ."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into the Hand of a Woman II

**Author's Note:**

  * For [opalmatrix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/gifts).



Jael, the wife of Heber, sat before her tent nursing her daughter. She watched her maidservants carding wool, and she thought of the new clothing she would weave for her husband, so that all who saw him would see he was a wealthy man, and would think him lucky to have a wife so skilled. In her heart she counted the sacks of raw wool that she had sent to market in Hazor that spring, and reckoned also the price her maids’ weaving would fetch, and she was content. Heber's skill with metal was known to Jabin and to other princes of Canaan, but was it not the flock that had been her marriage portion that gave wool to clothe him like a prince himself when he stood before the great men of the land? Was it not the weaving of her maidservants that had bought armlets of gold to adorn her husband, and a ring of gold for her own nose? She frowned as a man ran into the camp, a cuirass streaked with blood and filth upon his body, and one arm hanging limp by his side.

"I mean no harm," he gasped, and she saw he was a youth, no older than her eldest son. "Please, is this not the camp of Heber the Kenite, ally of Hazor? I am Sisera, the son of Sisera, commander of Jabin's chariots. Water, I beg you."

"Bring milk," Jael said to the maid nearest her. "And bread of this morning's baking. What is it that has happened, my lord?"

"We are lost," he said, tears in his eyes. "The Hebrews have no king, they are led by a woman – how is it that we are lost? All the chariots of Hazor are scattered." He took the bread and milk the maid brought and looked upon Jael as a little boy looks upon his mother when he has woken from a bad dream. "Let me rest a while, I pray. If anyone comes, say you have seen no one."

"Yes, my lord," Jael said, and when he had eaten his fill, she led him into her own tent. "Lie here, and sleep." He lay down and was asleep at once, before she had even covered him over with blankets of soft wool. Then she sat and thought, and watched her baby sleeping also. A man on foot could not far outrun his pursuers. Her husband was the friend of Jabin, but soon Hebrews, fierce with victory would reach the camp. Would they not slay the friends of Jabin? Would they not dash her baby upon rocks? She would need to show the Hebrews that she was their friend.

When she could delay no longer she took a tent peg, hard and sharp, and a hammer into her hands. Sisera was deep in sleep and did not move as she put the peg against his temple. A woman of Hazor might have flinched, or her hand might have been weak, but Jael was a tent-dwelling woman, and had put up camp all her life. Her hand was strong and she had always needed but one blow to put a tent peg into the ground. She looked at what she had done and was glad he had not waked at the last moment. It was a kindness from heaven that he had not known he was not safe.

When the woman with eyes of flame and the man with a sword-strike as fast as lightning came into her camp at the head of their army, Jael was waiting. She drew back her tent flap and let them see what was within.

"The man whom you are seeking," she said, "is here."

 

**Author's Note:**

> The image for today is _Jael and Sisera_ by James Northcote, taken from www.racollection.org.uk 
> 
>  
> 
> _Barak said to Deborah, ‘If you will go with me, I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.’ And she said, ‘I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.’_
> 
>  
> 
> \---Judges 4


End file.
